Peccadilloes in Nippon and in Nipponese with a Quixotic Perspective. Coming at you from Yokohama, near Tokyo.

January 14, 2010

Koizumi Gonna Knock You Out/I Solve the N. Korea Problem

I saw the following video mentioned on Japan Probe, but didn't get around to seeing it until this morning. It. Is. Awesome.In case you don't know, Koizumi was the Prime Minister back when I first came to Japan. In fact, he came to my house shortly after I moved in. Also appearing in this video is another former PM and Olympic-level sharp shooter, Abe.

But I promised to solve the North Korea problem in the title of this post, as a game of mahjong just doesn't seem feasible. So here's my equally wacky solution: To ensure peace, Japan should become friends with North Korea. That's it. Become buds, lift sanctions, and start trading. Because hungry, desperate people without connections to the outside world will never become better on their own. But if we started getting friendly, it wouldn't take long for internationalism and capitalism to actually leak in and improve things.

I know what you're thinking: But Clay, they kidnapped Japanese people! Yes, they certainly did. But you know, about the only time we got any of those people back was when Koizumi went over there and made friendly with Dear Leader. We can never progress as enemies.